NEWS

February 8, 2007
Prison Ministry Case in Appeals Court

Associated Press

Federal appeals court panel of three judges, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, will hear arguments next week in a case that challenges President Bush's policy of intermingling private faith-based programs and government.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt ruled on June 2, 2006, that the Prison Fellowship Ministries Inc. program used at a central Iowa prison was unconstitutional and must be shut down.

The program, during which inmates immersed themselves in evangelical Christianity, was operated at the Newton Correctional Facility.

The program was challenged in federal court by the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Pratt ruled that the program operated by Prison Fellowship through a contract with InnerChange Freedom Initiative Inc. violated the First Amendment's clause barring government from the establishment of religion.

The ruling ordered the Iowa Department of Corrections to close the program and that $1.5 million had to be returned to the state.

The 8th Circuit arguments in the case are scheduled to be held in St. Louis before O'Connor and Judges Roger Wollman and Duane Benton at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the court schedule.

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